Term “Zero Drop”

“Zero Drop” was a term coined by Golden while he was cutting the excess heel elevation out of shoes at his family’s running store. Customers that had heard from their friends about the “modified” shoes were coming in asking to try them and a catchy name was needed. Golden came up with “Zero Drop” to describe how the cushioning in the shoes no longer dropped from the heel down to the forefoot. The term “Zero Drop” soon caught on and spread like wildfire. The store sold around 1,000 pairs of modified “Zero Drop” shoes in the first year. Later, as Altra put the term out there, it was later picked up by the giants of the shoe industry. Unfortunately, they misunderstood the term and used it to describe ultra minimal shoes or shoes with no cushioning. The term “Zero Drop” is now the industry accepted name for shoes that have no heel elevation and therefore are the same thickness at both heel and forefoot.